Carbureter-lock



W. C. EVANS AND S. M. BANCROFT.

CARBURETER LOCK.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE I0, 1918.

Patented July 6, 1920.

glwuamtoz S WILLIAM C. EVANS, 0F SEDALIA, MISSOURI, AND SAMUEL M. BANCROFT, 0F WIGHITA,

KANSAS, ASSIGIN'ORS, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS POBATIDN, A CORPORATION OF NEW YGRK.

TO THE CARBUBETOR'LOCK- COB- GARBUBETEBrLQCK.

nsaaear.

Application filed. June 10, 1918.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, WILLIAM C. Evans United States, residing, respectively, at Sedalia, in'the county of Pettis and State of Missouri, and VVichita', in the county of Sedgwick, State of Kansas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Carbureter-Locks; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact descriptionof the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The object of the invention is to provide means whereby the feed valve of an inter nal combustion engine may be locked in a closed position when the engine is left unattended, so that an unauthorized person cannot turn on the fuel supply and start the engine. The invention is especially applicable to the engines of automobiles inasmuch as by the use of it an automobile may be safely left unattended without danger of being stolen.

Various types of liquid fuel locks have been devised. Some are located directly in the supply tanks. These are objectionable primarily because the valves employed cannot be operated by conventional types of c linder-lock lre s. and secondaril because most supply tanks are now disposed exteriorly of the car body in plain view, and the owners of these cars will invariably not submit to the installation of such devices solely because they niar the appearance of the tanks. Another class of locks is arranged at some. convenient point between the tern'iinals of the tube leading from the tank to the carbureter. lhese possess the same disadvantage with respect to the nonopcrativeness of the valve as do the tank locks, and in addition. a thief is afforded the opportunity to sever the flexible tube-- and the tubes are almost universally flexible-innnediatel y adjacent opposite sides of the valve, and then reconnect the severed I terminals with a short piece of rubber tubingr, or to connect the terminal which joins the carburetor to a temporary portable reservoir. Still another form of lock is dis posed in the intalre manifold of an interna combustion engine, but this is impracticable -from a standpoint of installation, and int possible of installation in a number of lead Specification of Letters ltfatent.

Patented July 6, 1924] Serial No. 239,278.

ing makes of cars for the reason that manifolds have been entirely eliminated. Even if this contingency had not arisen it is extremely doubtful whether they would have proved thoroughly practical, as they must of necessity be placed in close proximity to the cylinders of the motor, and the heat radiated therefrom would obviously have a detrimental effect upon the delicate lock mechanism.

lVe have solved this perplexing problem by including a lockable valve as a part of the earbureter structure for controlling the flow of fuel therethrough. It is of extreme importance that the valve or valve casing be formed as an integral part of, or a unit of construction with the carbureter, whether this be done in the original process of man-1r facture, or subsequently permanently attached to the carbureter, as by welding or sweating of the connection. The underlymg reason for this is that no point is left between the valve and the carburetor which.

motor-boat or the like to which the lock valve is attached.

Referring to the draw1ngs l lgure l is a view 1n elevation showing the relation of the valve lock to the feed valve of a carbureter. Fig. 2 is a vertical transverse section of the device.

Fig.3 is a bottom plan view of the lock.

Fig". 4: is a top plan view of the valve.

Fig. 5 shows a modification.

Fig. 6 shows a further modification.

A is a carbureter of any ordinary type, having associated therewith a valve casing l3 which is provided with a rotary valve C.

D is a tubular casing or sleeve in which is secured by soldering or otherwise a- Yale lock Ehavingr a lrey e. The key slot 6 is exposed at the upper end of the tubular casing D so that the hey 6 may be readily inserted.

- insure irremovability.

therein. The inner or lower end of the lock is provided with a slot 6 and the up-- 'C and the lock E is disposed a short connecting plate F extending at its respective ends into and loosely fitting said slots 6 and 6, thus constituting a universal connection between the lock E and the valve C, to compensate for the eccentricity of the lock which, as will be seen, rotates on an axis that is non-alined with the axis of the valve. The connecting plate is maintained in position by the adjacent parts of the structure, and is made thin relatively to the width of the slots 6 and Z), in order to have suflicient freedom of motion to permit of the required universal movements.

In the modification shown in Fig. 6 the valve casing B and the sleeve D are arranged out of alinement 1n order to ahne the axes of the valve and the look. In this construction the slot 6 is dispensed with and the connecting plate is in the form of a tongue 7'' extending from the lower end of the look into the slot 6 at the top of the valve, this slot being diametrically disposed and of such width as to admit the lower end of the tongue f.

The valve casing B may be integral part of the carbureter bowl a, as shown in Fig. 1, or it may be an independent part as shown at B in Fig. 5. If non-integral, the valve casing may be provided with oppo' sitely extending tubular projections 6 D which are, respectively, provided with male and female screw threads 5, b the female screw thread Z) being engaged with the male screw thread I) on the carbureter nipple b llf the carbureter fuel-line connection member is of some other standard form than that shown and described, the corresponding connection devices of the lock casing may be modified accordingly. The union of the screw threads 7), Z is made permanent by a mass of solder b sweated into the space between the screw threads as shown in l ig. If the part of the carbureter to which our device is directly applied, as a in Fig. 5, is normally removable from the carbureter, an inspection lSlllEtklG to determine whether, with the device at tached there would be suflicient room because of the proximity or remoteness of the motor or other elements, in which to turn the part carrying the device completely around, simultaneously remove the part and the device, and thus defeat the purpose of the invention. ll? this could accomplished-and even realizing that it would be necessary to then substitute a new partwe prefer to also sweat or weld part a. to the body of the carbureter and thereby Assuming the valves.

them the valve C, when closed and locked,

prevents the admission of fuel to the carbureter, and that severance of the supply pipe'will not open the passage into the carbureter. When the valve is closed and locked it is therefore impossible to supply the carbureter with fuel from either the ordinary tank or from an auxiliary portable tank such as might be used if the fuel duct were open beyond. the supply valve.

The valve C is provided with stops 0, 0 lying in the path of a pin 0 extending from the valve, the extent of movement permitted by the stops being only suflicient to allow the valve to be either fully opened or fully closed. This limitation of movement prevents the key 6 from being turned to a position which admits of its withdrawal from the lock, except when the valve C is closed. The key will therefore remain in the lock while fuel is flowing to the carbureter, but when the supply of fuel has been cut off, the key may be removed from the lock and carried away by the operator.

The invention is applicable not only to carburetors of automobiles and of motor boats, but to any internal combustion engine using vaporized or fixed gaseous fuel.

The valve casing cannot be removed from the carbureter while the carbureter contains fuel, because the blow pipe flame is required to loosen the sweated connection, and special tools would have to be employed in order to open up the passage into the carbureter if the carbureter and valve casing constitute one integral part. Furthermore, the application of a blow pipe flame to a carbureter would be extremely hazardous and impracticable. it will thus be seen that the theft of an automobile equipped with our invention is impossible unless the machine is hauled away under the power of another machine.

Among other advantages flowing from the use of our invention is that when the valve has been locked in closed position, only that quantity of fuel which is in the float chamber of the carbureter can evaporate or leak from the carbureter. This effects a very great saving, when it is considered that an average of one pint of gasolene evaporates from a carbureter every twenty-four hours, and that a considerable number of carbureters lealr because of defective needle- Additionally, theft insurance is eliminated, and the rate of fire insurance is reduced to a minimum.

ll herever the word lockable is used in the specification and claims, it signifies a lock which can be actuated by a special key;

llti

or by a contrivance, the operation of which.

is not known to the general public.

We Wish it understood that in its generic aspects our invention comprehends the employment not only of the various means described, but. of equivalent means for performing the recited functions. For example, we are not limited to the particular type of Valve nor to the specific kind of lock. We desire to reserve the right to effect such modifications and variations as may come fairly Within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described our invention what We claim is:

1. In a fuel locking mechanism for carbureters, the combination with a carbureter having a standard fuel-line connection, of a casing inclosing a fuel valve and a lock capable of retaining the valve in'closed position, a fuel-line connection on the casing, and a connectionintegral with the casing and adapted for quick and permanent joinder to said carbureter connection, Without modification of the latter.

2. In a fuel locking mechanism for carbureters, the combination with a carbureter having an integral fuel-line connection, of a casing inclosing a fuel valve and a lock capable of retaining the valve in closed position, a fuel-line connection on the casing, and a connection integral with the casing and adapted for quick and permanent joinder to said carbureter connection without modification of the latter.

3. ln-fuel locking mechanism for carbureters, the combination with a carbureter having an integral fuel-line connection, of a unitary casing inclosing a fuelvalve and a lock capable of retaining the valve in closed position, a fuel-line connection on the casing, and a connection integral with the casing and adapted for quick and permanent joinder to said carbureter connection Without modification of the latter.

In testimony whereof we aifix our signatures.

\ WILLIAM G. EVANS.

SAMUEL M. BANCROFT. 

